Friday, April 28, 2006

57th International Toy Fair

Like
most boys growing up in the United States my first train set was from
Lionel. Who actually got the set, my brother or myself is a mystery lost in
time. What is known is that I was the one that caught the lifetime
addiction. It lay dormant for then next few decades but re awoke while I was
stationed in Germany. Not able to purchase anything during that time on a
soldier's income I saved the impulse till my finances had sufficiently
improved. What did occur was that I developed a love for all things German
and I vowed that if I ever were to build a layout it would run German
trains.

My first real layout used Kato track and was built in the bottom part of a
trundle bed. Needless to say since it wasn't my own bed operating sessions
had to be arranged! After my last move the layout went into storage until my
attention shifted from slot cars back to model railroads. It might never
happen except for two things. When rooms were allocated in our new room I
was given one of the bedrooms and the washroom. The washroom is still
waiting to be fitted into a darkroom but the bedroom was built into a
library with dark cherry wood floors and built in bookcases. The built in
bookcases were soon supplemented with modular bookcases also dark cherry.
This would form the foundation for my new layout.

My
work takes me all over the world but the majority of my contracts are in
North America. It just so happened that my last major contract was in
Vancouver, Canada. I mention this because one of the leading retailers
of European (German) model railroad equipment is located in Langley, BC.
Which was approximately 45 minutes and $500 dollars from my apartment
downtown. I don't think that I ever left his store with less than a half
century debit on my check card! It all started with a DCC starter set from
Fleischmann and degenerated into additional locomotives from Minitrix. Soon
I had a halfway decent roster looking for a permanent layout to run on. The
trundle bed was no longer an option but my library offered an answer to my
dilemma. I would build my empire on top of a set of bookcase that I
have along one side. Designing what I am sure is an over-complicated track
plan I vow to have everything up and running before I add scenery but unlike
my fried Doug, scenery they'll be, since that's one of the areas I enjoy
best. This weekend I will begin the installation of my yard which includes a
turntable, a six-seven stall roundhouse and various service tracks. I will
build the layout as a set of modules and wire each one before progressing to
the next. I will also eventually have working catenary on DC.

I
was staying outside of Nurnberg in a small Gasthof and Monday would be my
first day at the Fair. After a few beers I was able to was the "taste" of
English food from my mouth as well as my memory. I rented a minivan, or at
least that's what they gave me and I was on my way bright and early. I was
able to score a press pass thanks to the last minute efforts of the afore
mentioned expat South African, I had a vendor pass tucked away just in case.
The exhibition hall is quite large and is used for several international as
well as national trade fairs. This was the 57th Toy Fair and is used by many
toy manufacturers as a stage to announce their new toys. The other main
purpose of the fair is for manufacturers and distributors to meet with their
clients, toy stores as well as hobby shops. At the beginning of year
train shops must order their inventory for the rest of the year with regards
to new items. There's quite a rush on and it must be nerve wracking for the
shops to have to guess what they will sell regarding inventory that is brand
new. There is a quota system with some manufacturers I think including LGB
and Marklin where you are judged on what you sold the previous year. How
well you did will move you up the line in getting the new stuff. Obviously
you'll still be ordering later in the year but availability on exclusive
items will be at a premium and to stay in the good graces of your more
demanding customers they'll expect their new toys or go somewhere else.

It's hard
to describe the Toy Fair as anything but huge. There must have been close to
a dozen halls. I would concentrate on the model railway and hobby
construction areas. All the major brands were here of course, their displays
running into the millions. In fact despite the dire reports regarding the
hobby in Germany this seemed where the fanciest displays were led by LGB. This year one hall was devoted entirely to official 2006 World Cup toys launched
on the market by soccer's world governing body FIFA, which is expected to
earn some two billion euros ($2.4 billion). I didn't want to visit this hall
as I'm trying to ignore the Cup until the semi-finals so I won't get
disappointed by the perennially under-achieving Dutch team. So I'll have to
take their word for it. I did of course visit the halls display Model
Construction / Hobbies, Model Railways & Accessories, and Mechanical &
Electronic Toys. That was enough to walk myself lame after only 2 days.
According to the organizers there are two product groups at the
International Toy Fair in Nürnberg that are visited by almost every (male)
buyer, even though he has nothing to do with them professionally: Model
Railways and Model Construction.
With development costs of
around 1 million euros for a new locomotive this means the manufacturers are
faced with enormous investment costs every year. A share of some 60 % for
manual work is a burden on the production costs and leads to the situation
today where even large manufacturers have an increasing number of parts or
whole models produced in Asia or Eastern Europe. It also means that these
people take their toys seriously. One thing I noticed was that there is a
thriving market at the museum quality end of the train hobby spectrum.
Manufacturers such as
KISS
Micro-MetakitDingler
Regner displayed models that were breathtaking. It's a good thing none of them model in N or I would have left my wallet in Germany.